Memories

MEMORIES
By Ethel Karlson Holmsten
Christmas 1990
EARLY YEARS
When we lived in the back of the store on First Street,
Mother would go into the store to wait on the customers and climb
the long ladder to bring down boxes of shoes. She did this the
night before one of us was born. Mormor (Mother's Mother) stayed
with us children.
LIVING ON SOUTH LINCOLN STREET IN HINSDALE
One year all three of us girls had scarlet fever, measles
and chicken pox. Aunt Lill had started school and got each of
these, one after another, and passed them on to Aunt "E" and
myself. We were in quarantine for several months. In those days
we had to have a large sign on our outside door, telling
e verybody about each disease. our Dad was not allowed to live at
home and spread the disease to someone else.
The spring after all this sickness I was 3 or 4 years old
and ate green grapes that were not ripe. I developed peritonitis
and was very sick. My family did not think I was going to live.
They hired a trained nurse to take care of me. I was so weak s he
c ouldn't move me to change my night gown, so she cut the back of
it from top to bottom. She could get my arms in my nightie a nd
j ust lay the rest of it around my body. Mormor would come in t o
my room before she went to bed and look at me thinking I wou l d be
dead by morning. God had other plans for me. I had to learn how
t o walk all over again and talk too, I guess. The doctor came in
to see how I was and left some pills in small glass bottles. My
nurse put some l i ttle flowers in the empty bottles and pu t them
beside my bed.
Uncle Siggie was born when we lived in that house. It was
a l l on one floor.
I remember the day we moved from south Lincoln street to
north Lincoln Street. It must have been after supper. Mother ,
Mo rmor, Aunt Lill, Aunt "E" and I walked. Siggie was in the baby
buggy. He couldn't walk. It was beginning to get dark. Someone
h ad wound up the clock and put it in the baby carriage . As we
walked along the alarm on the clock went off.
LIVING ON NORTH LINCOLN STREET
I do not remember going into the house on north Lincoln but
I do remember when Arthur was born. When Mother was in labor we
children were sent next door to the Mark.man's. They were such
good neighbors.
How well I remember when the little Markman girl fell out of
the upstairs window to the ground. Mrs. Markman came running to
Mother with the little girl. She was so frightened. As long as
that little girl lived she suffered from that fall. The parents
through the years took her to different doctors, but nothing
could cure her.
The house on north Lincoln was a large two-story house, five
bedrooms upstairs, no bathroom. Downstairs we had a large
kitchen with one door to a stairway going upstairs, another down
to the cellar, one to the only bathroom, one back door to the
outside and the fifth door to the adjoining dining room.
The kitchen was the most lived-in room in the house. It was
the length of the whole back of the house. We had a large pantry
between the door going upstairs and the door going to the cellar.
We only used the dining room when we had company.
We also had a sitting room, a parlor and a front hall with
stairs going up and one front door going outside. Thus we had
two sets of stairs going up to the second floor, one in the back
and one in the front of the house.
Off the kitchen was the bathroom but it did not have a
cellar under it. In cold weather the pipes would freeze and we
could not use the tub f or bathing. The pipes would freeze for
the toilet and mother would wrap heavy towels around the pipes,
put an empty pail under the pipes and pour boiling water on the
towels to keep the pipes from freezing.
When we were alone as a family we always ate in the kitchen.
We had two stoves: a gas stove for warm weather and a coal­burning
one for cold weather.
After supper every Saturday Mother bathed us in front of the
wood stove. We had a large galvanized tub that Mother bathed us
in. The boys first, then the girls. The kitchen was warm and
cozy with all doors shut to keep it warm. We children used to
chase each other up one stairs and down the other.
Mormor's bedroom was in the middle of the north side of the
house. We walked through her room to go down the backstairs to
the kitchen. Grandmother Karlson had a nice room on the south
side upstairs.
Our home on north Lincoln had a large two story barn. We
loved that big barn. Downstairs there was a large room where we
kept the lawn mower and Dad's tools which hung on the wall. Next
to that was a sliding door into the two rooms where our chickens
roosted. There was a door leading out to the fenced-in area for
the chickens. In one corner of the larger room Dad had nailed
wooden boxes on the walls where the hens could lay their eggs.
When Dad cut the grass he saved the cut grass to dry upstairs in
the barn. He then used the dry grass to fill the hens' boxes.
This made a nice nest for them.
When Mother ran out of eggs for her cooking, she sent Aunt
"E" out for eggs. Aunt "E" banged on the wall, preached to the
chickens and told them to lay eggs. It worked. She always came
in with eggs for Mother. It became a family joke.
In our front yard we had a black walnut tree. Each fall we
gathered in the nuts and spread them out to dry on the floor in
the little room upstairs in the barn. On Sunday afternoons Art,
Siggie and I went up there and cracked the nuts and ate the
"meat". They were as hard as rocks to crack . We had to use a
brick and hammer to break them.
One Sunday when we came up there almost all the nuts were
gone - just a dozen or so left. We couldn ' t understand what had
happened.
The former owners of our home had raised pigeons . There was
a small opening above the window for the pigeons to come and go.
The squirrels had found the hole and carried the nuts away.
When we moved to this house on north Lincoln street we found
a miniature barn in the big barn. Some child had left his little
barn for us. We loved it .
One fall the boys decided to put the miniature barn up in
the big coffee tree in the back yard. They put a lot of
uncracked nuts in the barn for the squirrels to eat during the
winter.
In the spring Siggie climbed up to see how many nuts were
left. He put his hand in the little barn. The wasps had decided
to build a nest there. They came out and s t ung Siggie in many
places . He screamed. Mother heard him and came running. Did
you ever try climbing a ladder in a long skirt? Well , Mother
did! At the same time she tried to help Siggie come down.
Naturally he hurt all over but Mother persisted and got him down.
She brought him to the pump by the back door . There she pumped
cold water all over him . Mormor didn't know what all the
excitement was about. Mother got Siggie into the house and
started to undress him when Mot her screamed. A wasp had gotten
under her skirt and stung her . Now we had two patients . It was
an exciting experience.
We had a billy goat who didn't like to get wet . When it
rained and he was tied out in the back yard, he made a lot of
noise. One time when it started to rain, Mother told Siggie to
run and get the goat in the barn. Siggie and goat both ran for
the barn . Siggie took hold of the barn door to open it but the
goat didn't think he was working fast enough so he bucked Siggie
in the back. Siggie tried again to open the door and was bucked
again. This time the goat ' s horn caught in Siggie's knickers
(the knickers just came to his knee s) . The horns ripped his
knickers to the waist. Art and I were standing in the kitchen
door laughing . Mother came over to see why we were laughing.
She picked up her skirts and ran in the rain to get the goat in
the barn. In those days the women ' s skirts came to the floor.
We also had a pet ring dove. Dad made a house for him to
live in. One side of the box was covered with a screen. We
opene d a cor ner to feed him and t o let him come out on Saturdays
when Mother cleaned the kitchen . She put a pie tin of lukewarm
water on the table so he could take a bath . He got in and
splashed and had a great time.
In the summer time we let him outside to fly around the
yard. We had him for many years. In the evening we went outside
and held up his bowl with his food in it. Sometimes he wouldn't
come so one of the boys would climb up the tree where he was. He
then picked him up, put h i m inside his shirt and placed him in
his cage in the kitchen. ·
One Fourth of July someone forgot and let him outside. He
was afraid of the noise of the firecrackers . I r emember going
around looking in the trees for him but we never found him . He
had been frightened away.
One Saturday afternoon, Mother didn ' t have meat for Sunday
dinner so she walked to the butcher shop and asked for a chicken.
All he had was a live hen . So she carried it home. Well, that
hen kept saying, "paw, paw." We fell in love with her. She was
our ·pet for a long time. I don't know what Mother did about meat
for that Sunday dinner.
When we lived on North Lincoln Street, Edythe and I slept
together. When she was cold she put the blankets around her and
I would wake up because I was cold. That happened many times.
Finally one night I was disgusted . Here she was all wrapped up
and warm . So I just gave her a push and she rolled off to the
floor. I didn't dare tell her what I did until years later when
we were grown up. Then I asked her if she remembered the time
she fell out of bed. I told her what had happened and we all
laughed about it.
One spring Siggie and Art walked down to the creek. There
was still ice on the creek and the boys started to walk on the
ice. A big chunk of ice broke loose with them on it. Well, it
tipped and both boys fell in that cold water. All they could do
was head for home. They didn ' t want Mother to see their wet
clothes so they went up the front stairs to change to dry ones.
I don't remember what Mother did when she found all those wet
clothes .
Another time they climbed up a young tree .
in the tree and the other was lower down. They
it. That was great but suddenly the tree broke
ground and both boys hit the ground. They were
the ground so hard. Siggie asked Art, "Are you
Well, their backs did ache!
One was high up
started to rock
off near the
dazed by hitting
all right?"
Mother had a sister, Aunt Sophie, who lived in Chicago.
Mormor visited her some times, but Aunt Sophie died when I was
little. She died on the operating table. Mother knew she was
having surgery and that she had been very sick . I was with
Mother when she said she heard a bell ring and Mother said, "Now
Sophie is gone."
Aunt Sophie and her husband Uncle Charlie (who worked for
Carson, Pirie and Scott Wholesale House) had had two sons. Each
one died before he was two years old . When Aunt Sophie was so
sick, she said, "Now I know why God has taken my little boys home
before He took me . "
In those days Dad was allowed to buy many things from
Carson, Pirie and Scott wholesale. I bought our maple table and
two chairs from Carsons. We still have them.
Dad had an Italian man to repair the shoes. We had to take
turns helping Dad wait on the customers on Saturdays. Usually I
stayed home and helped Mother in the kitchen.
On the way home from high school we would stop in Dad's
store before walking home . If I came into the store and my shoes
were not shined, Nick would pick me up, put me on top of Dad's
big safe, polish my shoes and scold me, all in fun.
He rode back and forth on the Burlington train to Chicago
where he lived. He always waited to hear the train whistle as it
came around the bend about a mile away. Then he grabbed his
jacket, dashed down the street and got on the train before it
started again.
He loved playing jokes on us girls. He was always well
dressed when he came to work. He would remove his coat and hang
it up in the back of the store. One day we took his coat, sewed
up the sleeves so he couldn't put the coat on. Then we sewed the
front of the coat to the back of the coat. When he tried to put
on his jacket he realized what we had done. He said later that
he sat on the train and pulled threads out of his jacket all the
way to Chicago.
One April first (April Fool's Day) he called our house and
asked to speak to Edythe. He changed the sound of his voice and
told her he wanted to have his little girl take piano lessons
from Aunt "E". So we made plans for her to come to our house for
her lesson. Aunt "E" was happy to have another pupil. About
five minutes later he called again and wanted to talk to Aunt
"E" . All he said was "April Fools". He enjoyed playing jokes on
us, and of course, we got even.
One day the Lions Club of business men went to visit the
Chicago stock yards . That evening Dad couldn't e at his supper.
He had watched them butcher the cows and pigs and it had turned
his stomach.
Dad's full name was Emmanuel Zacheus Jacob Karlson . When
the folks moved to Hinsdale from Chicago, Dad had an insurance
policy and signed it with his full name.
His shoe store was just across the street from the post
office. When he received a letter from the insurance company
they had his whole name written on it. The postman there knew no
one in town with that name so they returned it to the company.
That was a lesson to Dad. He dropped all the names but Mr.
Emmanuel Karlson.
There was a milk man by the name of Carlson and the post
office would get the mail mixed up . Dad at first wrote his name
with a "C". Then he changed it to Karlson with a "K". So our
mail was not mixed up after that.
North of Hinsdale and north of Ogden Avenue, there was a
large area of woods, and beyond that, a creek. The water was not
deep. we could wade in it.
In the woods we childron found caves where the black slaves
hid. Gradually from there ·:hey worked their way north to the
border of Canada where they were safe. I remember in one cave we
found a shelf with dishes on it.
We loved to go to the w.~ ods and the creek. On the east side
of the road to the creek thers was a large stone h ouse. In front
of it was a stone wall about JS inches tall and we loved to walk
on that stone wall. Many times someone in the house would knock
at the window. And that meant, "Get off that stone wall!"
I remember one time the house caught on fire and the firemen
threw a trunk out the window. When it landed on the ground, it
flew open. Inside were beautiful pieces of expensive lace. The
owner of the house (a woman) would steal this lace and take it
home. She was a cleptomaniac . Her husband knew it. He told the
department stores in Chicago to just charge it to his account.
Auntie Doans lived across the street from us. She owned a
lot of property in Hinsdale and Chicago as well as a large track
of woods north of Hinsdale. In the woods there was a small brick
building where she kept the coffins of her husband and children.
We children would go out there . On two sides of the building
there was an opening the size of a brick. We children took a
piece of newspaper, folded it up and lit one end and stuck it in
one opening. Then we ran around the building to the other
opening to look through the hole into the room now illuminated by
our lit newspaper on the other side. There were two large
coffins and one small one. When Auntie died, the lock to this
building was so rusty they couldn't open it to put the coffin
inside, so they buried her outside.
One day while Auntie was still living, Mother asked me to go
to her house to see how she was. I knocked on the door and she
called, "Come in . " She was lying on the couch and asked me to
come over to her. She put up her arms to welcome me and I got so
frightened, I said, "I will get Mother." I ran home and told
Mother, "Auntie is dying." So Mother ran over. She was sick and
Mother and Dad knew she was not a Christian so they asked our
Christian neighbors, the Nobles, to go with them to talk to
Auntie. I don't remember if Auntie accepted the Lord but she did
die later.
When Mother and Dad had something that we needed to pray
about, they asked us children to come into their bedroom. We all
got down on our knees around their bed and took turns praying
about it. It made quite an impression on us children.
My first grade teacher, Louise Blodget, used to say, "If
your head wasn't attached to your body, you would leave it at
home." That was whenever we forgot something.
She lived in the next block north of our house. She had a
feather bow that she wore around her neck. Sometimes she would
lose it on the way to school. We would find it and return it to
her.
The teachers in the sixth grade couldn't handle the boys.
Finally they gave us an older married woman for a teacher. She
took the boys by the nose and shook them. It was hard not to
laugh.
When we lived in the old house on North Lincoln Street, Dad
was the choir director. Edythe and I sang in the choir. One
evening Dad, Edythe and I went to choir practice and Siggie
walked up to his house that was being built. That evening as we
were singing Edythe and I saw the church door open. There was
Siggie with brown stuff all over his head and clothes. We told
Dad. Edythe and I ran all the way home with Siggie. we took him
to the back door and pumped water on his head. Then we helped
him get his top clothes off , so Mother couldn ' t see him . She
would have fainted, I think. He had fallen from the second floor
window into a large box of brown dry cement mix .
Grandma Mutron would walk from Chicago to Hinsdale carrying
two suitcases of clothes to sell. She had several homes where
she stopped over night. Ours was one. She slept in the sitting
room on the couch. Mother gave her breakfast . Sometimes Dad
took her home to Chicago in the car.
The Old Plank Road (later renamed Ogden Avenue) was the main
road from Chicago to Downers Grove. It was called the Old Plank
Road because wooden planks had been laid down on it to cover the
mud which would have been unnavigatable in rainy weather. This
road went through Fullersburg, now called Hinsdale. Garfield
Street in Hinsdale ended on this road. To the east of Garfield
on the Plank Road was an old inn named Lincoln Inn. It was
called the Lincoln Inn because Abraham Lincoln had stayed
overnight there once.
MEMORIES OF MY GRANDPARENTS
We were nine in my family. Mother and Dad, two grandmothers
and five children. Dad's mother was lame. It was hard for her
to get around.
Mother's Mother, or Mormor, was four years younger. She
often joined us in our fun. She was a real pal. I remember one
time bringing home a stray kitten. It was yellow with blue eyes.
I told Mother and Grandmother I couldn't help it. It reminded me
of the Swedish flag which is blue with a yellow cross through it.
I was allowed to keep it.
As we grew up, we girls started wearing silk stockings.
Mormor thought that was terrible. How could we keep our legs
warm?
In the evening after dinner, our Grandmothers did the
dishes. Mormor washed and Farmor, Dad's Mother, dried the
dishes. Then Mormor would sit at the kitchen table and read her
Swedish newspapers and her Bible. As she read her Bible she
would look up, clap her hands and sing in Swedish: "Aren't Thou
coming soon, Lord? Aren't Thou coming soon?" I can still see
her sitting there.
One cold Tuesday morning in the middle of January, the
family woke up. Mormor had had a stroke. She could not speak or
move. Mother gave her a spoon full of the liquid in fruit soup
and Mormor was able to press Mother's hand, so we knew her mind
was not affected. That Friday evening when the doctor came to
see Mormor, he said he didn't think she would live until morning.
We all sat around her bed, the doctor, too. Every breath Mormor
took was shorter than the last one. And the space between her
breathes was longer. At midnight Mormor took her last breath and
went home to her Lord. Our doctor said, "I hope I can go as
Mormor did." It was a beautiful experience for all of us.
Mormor always said she didn't want to go in the cold winter.
But the day she was buried the snow had melted and the birds were
chirping in the cemetery. Mother said, "God answered Mormor's
prayers."
It's wonderful to have these happy memories of my childhood .
What a privilege to be raised in a Christian home. Those of you
who still have children living at home be sure to spend time with
them. Show them that you love them. Teach them to pray, listen
to them.
Grandfather and Grandmother Karlson came from Sweden to
visit us but Grandfather did not like America. While coming here
on the boat, someone had passed out a bright red fruit, a sample
of the fruit from America. Grandfather took one and bit into it
and it fell to pieces. He thought it was a ripe apple. Instead
it was a ripe tomato and he was very upset.
My grandparents did not stay long. He wanted to go back to
Sweden, which they did. They lived there as long as Grandfather
was alive. After his death Grandmother wanted to return to the
States.
One day at the Ladies Aid Meeting in Sweden Grandmother met
a girl who had been visiting Sweden but was returning to the us.
Grandmother asked her when she was leaving. She was leaving in a
few days. Grandmother asked her if she could travel with her.
I also remember the cold winter morning when Dad was waiting
on a customer and someone came walking into the store. Dad
looked up and there came Grandmother Karlson. No one knew she
was coming. It was bitter cold. Dad called home and told
Mother . Then he called a taxi (an unheard- of thing to do ) . He
knew his Mother could not walk far in the cold.
Well, all the relatives from Chicago, Libertyville and
Hinsdale came that Sunday to our house. This included Aunt
Marie, Aunt Emma and Uncle Oscar. How did Mother ever have
enough food in the house for that crowd? But she did.
I had a date with Nathaniel Wendel from our church to go
with him to Chicago to hear the Messiah so I had to miss all the
excitement.
PISTAKE BAY
Mother and Dad belonged to a group of people who were all
shoe store owners. Together they owned a cottage at Pistake Bay.
Each family was allowed to spend two weeks at the cottage. The
first family to go in the spring could go as early as they wanted
to. The last one in the fall could stay as late as they wanted
to. We rotated each year so each family did not have the same
time every year.
We children would pack our dolls and toys in the trunk.
After we were in bed Mother would take them all out and fill the
trunk with clothes for all of us.
We rode the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy train to Chicago
and changed trains at the Union Station t o take one to Fox Lake.
When we got off that train there were several big buses
lined up to take the people to their cottages. Each driver
shouted where his bus was going . Our bus driver shouted,
"Pistake Bay, the boat landing." He kept shouting u.ntil the bus
was full.
Dad arranged to have our trunk of clothes transferred from
the train to our bus. The trunks were put on the top of the bus.
It was a long drive through the woods to our cottage. such
excitement for us children.
Our cottage was up on a hill. There were about thirty steps
to climb. There was a boat house near the lake where the row
boats were stored.
One year we were the first to go . There had been a fire in
the cottage. Workmen had repaired the cottage but had not
cleaned it up. There were little pieces of boards and sawdust,
bugs and spiders everywhere. There were no beds so we all slept
on mattresses on the floor. Mother was afraid the bugs would
crawl into our ears so she put cotton in them.
There was one man in the club who always came alone. He
stayed at the nearby hotel. His wife never came with him. She
wanted to go to a classy resort.
This man, Mr . Rhodes, would come over to our cottage and
entertain us children. He always made up stories to tell us. We
all loved him.
One time Uncle Oscar came to spend a few days with us. Aunt
Tillie must have come too. Uncle Oscar loved to play tricks on
us. Edythe emptied the sugar bowl and put salt in it instead. ·we
offered the sugar to Uncle Oscar for his coffee. He helped
himself and stirred his coffee and took a mouthfull. He rea l ized
it was salt and didn ' t want to swallow his mouthfull . So he
started to wave his hands and tell everybody not to take any. Of
course we all had fun laughing at him.
One time he was going to show us girls how to clear the
table of dishes. He took hold of the corners of the oil cloth
which was on the table and lifted up the cloth with dishes,
silverware, all lumped together. He walked out to the kitchen
and dumped the cloth on the cupboard.
CHRISTMAS MEMORIES
I remember one Christmas Eve, we were waiting for Dad to
come home from the store. Suddenly we heard a window slam shut.
We ran into the bedroom and there on the floor was a large bag.
We thought Santa had dropped it into our house. When we opened
it, there was Aunt Lill ' s doll all dressed in new clo~hes and
Aunt "E"'s doll dressed in new clothes and mine too.
Mr. Hord worked in Dad's shoe store and he and his wife did
not have any children. Each Christmas Mrs. Hord took our dolls
and made new clothes for them.
I remember one evening getting ready for the Sunday School
Christmas program at church. My next older sister, Edythe, was
going to play the pump organ for the Sunday School program and
wear her red dress. She had washed a pair of her stockings and
hung them behind the cook stove to dry . When she came to get
them they were gone. We all helped her look for them but no one
could find them. Mormor said we had all better see if anyone had
taken Edythe's stockings. She lifted up her skirt and there
were Edythe's silk stockings on Mormor's legs. She always
thought it was terrible that we girls wore silk stockings. Hers
were heavy cotton. We all had a good laugh. Mormor always hung
her warm cotton stockings behind the stove to dry. We sure
teased her about it. Mormor laughed as much as we did. She was
always a good sport.
Another Christmas Eve we were again waiting for Dad to come
home from the store for our usual Christmas Eve supper. Dad
never closed the doors of the store until the last customer left.
Many people came in late to shop. Sometimes he didn't come home
until midnight. It was hard for us children to have to wait so
late for Dad. Mother would take a toothpick and bend it to crack
but not to break and attach the bent end to our eye lid to keep
us awake.
Someone, either Mother or Lillie (my older sister), had put
a candle on a plate, lit it and given it to my little brother,
Arthur, just three years old. No one noticed him leave the
kitchen until we heard him scream. We ran. He had leaned over
the lit candle and his clothes were on fire. My sister, Lillie,
grabbed a small rug and wrapped it around him to put out the
fire. Of course we were frightened but that kept us awake until
Dad came home.
In our little church in Hinsdale we always celebrated
Christmas in the Swedish tradition. Early Christmas day we got
up in the dark and walked to church for "Julotta", a five o'clock
service. Dad and Edythe left before Mother and the rest of us.
Edythe played the old pump organ at the service. It was dark
when Mother and the rest of us walked to church. The moon was
out and I remember telling Mother that was God watching over us.
The windows in the church were tall and narrow. In the
middle of each were 3 tall candles lit for the service. Coming
in the dark for the five o'clock service, those lit candles made
a beautiful picture.
Inside we always had a huge Christmas tree on the platform
all decorated with tinsel and real candles. The candles were not
lit for that service but always for our Sunday School Christmas
program. This was our Swedish "Julotta" service. One of the
dads had a fish pole with a rag soaked in water to put out a
candle when it burned too low. We always sang the beautiful
Swedish Christmas songs.
Mother always made rice pudding for Christmas Eve. It was a
Swedish tradition to put ground almonds in the pudding and one
whole almond. Whoever found the whole almond in their rice
pudding was the next one to get married . Christmas after
Christmas Mormor found the whole almond in her pudding. How? We
did not know. We of course would tease her about it. She was
always a good sport!
Dad was superintendent of our Sunday School. Every
Christmas he bought apples to give out to each child at our
Sunday School's Christmas program. He also bought a big box of
candy and we girls helped fill the little paper boxes with candy
for the children . Dad always bought a box of chocolates for our
family. Each Sunday after dinner he got the l~rge box out. We
children were allowed one piece only each week until the box was
empty.
MEMORIES OF OUR LITTLE CHURCH IN HINSDALE
For several years in our church we had a bachelor as a
minister. He could write perfect English but had a hard time
pronouncing it. One Sunday Dad (he was the Sunday School
Superintendent) asked him if he would like to say something to
the children. He got up in front of the Sunday School and said,
"Who wants to be the 'dickens ' of the church?" No one answered.
So he said it again. Still no answer, no one held up their hand
and he, the pastor, turned to my Dad and said, "Karlson, vat is
da matter vit dese kids? No von vants ta be da dickens of dis
church." I looked at my Dad sitting up in front to the side.
Dad's head was bent down and he was trying not to laugh. Poor
Dad! He just got up and announced a song for us to sing. Of
course we children didn't dare laugh. That would be too rude.
We did not have electric lights in those days. We had gas
lights. I remember one Sunday evening after we had just
installed electric lights in the church, the lights went out.
The workmen had left only one gas light in the ceiling. In order
to light the gas light, we had to pull a chain to it. All was
pitch darkness. It was very quiet when out of the dark our
pastor shouted, "Vat is da matter? Vy can't ya pull da chain?"
Well, in our homes we pulled the chain when the toilet needed
flushing. That shout about pulling the chain made everyone laugh
- children and grownups as well.
The same pastor used to call me his little girl. The young
ladies in the church would tease h im. One day someone asked the
pastor if he had ever given his little girl a box of candy. Low
and behold one day he came over to our house and gave me a box of
candy. Of course that was some present. We didn't get much
candy in those days.
That reminds me. Mother always charged the groceries and
once a month she would give one of us the bill and the money to
pay it with. We took turns doing it because the grocer always
gave us a little striped bag of candy. We shared it with the
others.
COLLEGE MEMORIES
When I went to college we got off the train (Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy) at Canal Street, and ran between the
trains and freight trains to catch the street car to South
Michigan Street. Sometimes we took the train to the loop down
town, then we took the street car to National College of
Education.
I graduated after two years, but took another year and
graduated from a three year course. Most of the girls didn't go
any further than two years to get a better job .
SIGGIE AND HELEN'S WEDDING
We left home to go to Iowa for Siggie and Helen's wedding .
Helen's family lived on a farm near Gowrie .
It was a beautiful day when we arrived. However by the time
the ceremony, which was outside, was ready to begin in the
afternoon, it started to rain. The guests were arriving. The
pastor was ready to marry them. Then the young people of the
area came, carrying pots and pans and e qu ipment to upset the
service. They banged away so we couldn't hear the pastor talking
to Siggie and Helen and helping them make their vows to each
other.
Suddenly it started to rain harder . Soon it was a downpour.
The guests ran inside, the noise makers ran home. It really
poured. In those days the Iowa roads were mud roads.
The guests were served a supper but the downpour continued.
When the pastor and his wife left they thought they could get
safely home, but they soon returned to the farm. The roads were
water soaked, they couldn ' t drive.
By bedtime it still poured; no one dared to drive home .
Many slept on the floor. Someone planted an alarm clock under
Siggie and Helen's bed. It rang during the night.
The next day the roads were terrible . Mrs. Swanson (Helen's
mother) served breakfast to all of us. Some people drove home
through the corn fields. Dad didn ' t dare drive . There were no
highways in those days. We stayed for two days if I remember
correctly. When we started out, we came to one place where we
could see some one had gotten stuck. Dad tried to get through.
The wheels just churned in the mud. Siggie and Helen were with
us in the car. Siggie got out of the car and was able to get a
few boards from a fence to put under the wheels. Siggie had on
his best shoes. They were a mess. Good thing it wasn ' t raining.
I had to get home. The next day my classes started at
college and I had to be there. We finally arrived home two days
after my classes started.
Siggie and Helen continued their honeymoon. I don't
remember where they went but they settled in Hinsdale. It was
after this that Siggie fell out of the second floor window of the
house, which they were building, into the brown powder .
AT MISS HARE'S
1106 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago
My first job was teaching at Miss Hare's in Chicago. Miss
Hare was the owner of a boarding school for girls from wealthy
families. I taught first grade at this school. These were the
years 1925-1928. People like the Armours and Swifts sent their
daughters to this school.
I lived at school the first year and came home weekends. I
took the Burlington train to the Union Station in Chicago, then
the bus on Michigan Avenue to school. The bus was a double
decker. I usually rode on top when the weather was good. When I
lived at school we used to walk down South Michigan Avenue and
enjoy window shopping.
One Sunday evening when I came back to school after being
home for the weekend with my family in Hinsdale, I noticed that
our entrance was wet. I asked Miss Williams, our housemother, if
it had rained and she said "No". Then she realized the third
floor girls were having some fun. She asked me .to go up and see
what they were doing. They told me they wouldn't tell unless I
promised not to tell Miss Williams. They had been throwing water
out the window when some young fellows went by. The one leading
was a girl who was always very proper. So I had to promise I
would not tell Miss Williams who it was.
One night the fourth floor girls invited the 2nd floor girls
for a party. Each girl was supposed to bring a spoon. Bernice
Carlson went down to the first floor to get spoons. She was
walking toward the kitchen when she heard someone winding a
clock. It was our houseman checking the doors and windows to be
sure they were locked. Bernice was frightened and closed her
eyes and made believe she was walking in her sleep. That is just
what our houseman thought so he ran upstairs to get Miss Will iams
and tell her Bernice was walking in her sleep. She started to
cry as Miss Williams came down the stairs.
Bernice was sure she would be expelled but Miss Williams put
her arms around her and said, "Bernice, it's all right. Don't be
afraid. It's me, Miss Williams."
Miss Williams brought Bernice up to her room and put a chair
against the door so the girls could not open it from the inside .
Now they couldn't get to the party.
The next morning when I was in my bathroom the girls were
knocking at the door saying, "Karly, open up."
Then they told me what had happened. They were all excited
and laughing. They used to tell me about their pranks.
When my first-graders came in t he morning, the girls
curtsied and the boys bowed and said, "Good morning."
Every morning one of the maids served us cocoa and
sandwiches.
One evening after dinner the girls came knocking at my door
and told me Dorothy had r un away. She had asked me if she could
go downstairs and see if there was a package for her. They were
never allowed on the first floor after dinner. Of course I had
to tell Miss Hare and she asked me to stay and help her call her
parents. I got the telephone numbers and she did the talking but
we didn't reach the parents until late in the evening. About
midnight we heard them knocking at the front door. They asked
Miss Hare to take her back but Miss Hare said, "No, I can't be
responsible for your daughter."
On Sunday evenings when I came back to school I would bring
flowers with me from mother's yard. I would give each of the
older teachers a few.
One evening when I knocked at Miss Smith's door she called,
"Come in." There sat a little old bald-headed woman . I did not
know her and she laughed. "It's me," she said. She had her wig
in her hands. She was brushing it and putting it up for the next
day.
She told me one day she had an appointment in the loop and
hurried to catch the next bus. She got on the bus and realized
she didn't have her wig on, Q.D1y her hat but she stayed on the
bus and went to the appointment.
Another evening at dinner one of the teachers told us about
one of the wealthy women who always knew how to put on her make­up.
She had preserved her complexion so well, I said she was
well pickled. our teacher was shocked and said, "Miss Karlson!"
But the rest all laughed so hard.
There was one story at Miss Hare's that was passed down to
every new girl.
One evening one of the girls had bought a blueberry pie and
was giving each girl a piece. One girl didn't like hers so she
threw it out the window. In a few minutes there was a knock at
the door and there stood Miss Hare and a young man. He had blue­berry
pie all over his shirt and jacket. Of course the girl who
had thrown the pie out the window apologized and said she would
have his clothes cleaned. Several weeks later she was at a dance
and a young man asked her to dance. But she said she was sorry
but she had never been introduced to him. He said, "I am the
fellow you threw the pie on." Well, it ended up they were
married so it was a happy ending.
When the mayor of Chicago went to work, he came down Lake
Shore Drive past our school. First there was a motorcycle, then
a couple of cars, then the limousine with the mayor, then another
cycle. All the sirens were blasting away. When we heard all the
racket we knew the mayor was going to work.
My Dad's Grandfather (my Great Grandfather) was of the r oyal
family of Russia. That was before the communists took over. My
Great Grandfather was not allowed to marry his commoner sweet­heart.
But they lived together as husband and wife. They had 4
or 5 children. My Grandfather was a son in this family.*
When the communists took over, they killed all the members
of the royal family - all but a young couple and baby boy who
fled to America. They landed in Chicago. When they arrived in
Chicago, they had nothing. But he loved horses and with the help
of someone, he started a riding horse company. The wealthy
Chicago people would rent one of the horses to go horseback
* He apparently left Russia before the communists took over. His
wife was Farmor (Father's Mother) who lived with Mother's family
while she was a child .
riding. This is how he got on his feet financially.
When I was teaching first grade at Miss Hare ' s the little
son of this couple came to our kindergarten.** I used to wonder
if he and I were related. I didn't even tell Mother and Dad
about him. I could have talked to this couple and told them who
I was but I didn't.
I told a sister-in- law once that my Great Grandfather was of
the royal family of Russia . She thought I was crazy.
My Aunt Hannah of Visby, Sweden, had all that information
about my Great Grandfather written in her Bible. Aunt "E" knew
about that and I think Aunt Hannah showed Aunt "E" her Bible.
That was sixty years ago.
Gretchen Karlson Wasson and her family are on a tour to
Sweden now, June 1990. They plan to visit Visby. I called her
the evening before they left and reminded her about this Russian
couple. I also reminded her of my Uncle John, my Dad ' s brother,
who was a professor in Upsala University in Sweden.
My Dad went back to Sweden in 1911 to visit my Uncle John
who was very sick. Dad told us Uncle John was bedridden but the
two of them prayed, read their Bible and sang t ogether.
A few days after Dad arrived home from Sweden, he received a
cablegram that Uncle John had died. After he died his wife did
not want her children to have the Karlson name so she renamed her
children by her maiden name. My Dad was very upset about this.
I asked Gretchen to check the records at Upsala University
to see if she could find out anything about Uncle John's
children.
I used to remember Grandpa and Grandmother Karlson's address
in Visby. I think it was on "Kungsgattan" - King ' s Street,
Visby.
Miss Nolte was the principal at Miss Hare's School .
after I left the school, she kept in touch with me. She
little socks for Ruth and Lois when they were born. She
before Dave was born.
Even
made
died
I taught first grade until I got married and t aught only one
more year after that.
** Sometimes they allowed the younger brothers of daughters who
were enrolled at "Miss Hare's" to come to Kindergarten or first
grade.
OUR WEDDING - September 6, 1927
After the Grandmothers had both died, Mother and Dad decided
to build a new house. Mother didn't want to leave her garden.
So Dad hired a builder to move our old house to an empty lot 2 or
3 blocks away.
I didn't know then why Mother didn't want to leave her
garden. Mother had had a miscarriage and they had buried the
tiny body in Mother's flower garden. Years later when Mother and
Dad had sold the new house, the new couple wanted to enlarge the
back of the house and the builder found the bones of the baby.
The new owner was a doctor and realized it was a human skeleton.
When we were planning our wedding, Mother and Dad wanted us
to be married in the garden at home. our little frame church
didn't seat very many people.
Edythe played the piano for the wedding. The piano was in
the house and with the windows open, we could hear it in the
garden. Lill was maid of honor and Bert, Ralph~s next younger
brother was best man. Lill had made my wedding dress and I made
the veil and little head ornament of lace.
As Dad and I came out the front door to go around to the
back yard, it began to sprinkle a little and someone handed Dad a
black umbrella.
Ralph had made Mother an arbor for her climbing roses. We
were married in front of the arbor in the back yard.
I remember as we stood in front of our pastor, I heard Bert
say, "I'm glad this isn't my suit." He had borrowed it from
someone. We were married under the black umbrella even though
there was very little rain.
Dad and Mother had hired a woman from our church, a caterer,
to serve a dinner to the guests. Bert and Fred worked for an ice
cream firm in st. Paul, so they brought ice cream for dessert.
As the guests started to leave the single fellows tried to
kidnap Ralph but Edgar and Dad got Ralph and me up the stairs.
We realized they wanted to have some fun. They had parked their
cars in the neighbor's driveway.
We decided to fool them. We turned off the lights
downstairs, went upstairs and turned the lights out there as
well. So the fun lovers left one by one. They thought we were
going to sleep at home. When we saw the cars leave, Dad brought
his car to the back door. Edgar and Dad drove around the
neighborhood to be sure the guests had all left. Then Dad drove
us to our apartment a block away. Edgar went up to our apartment
to be sure there was no one there.
The next morning we had breakfast at home and then drove to
st. Paul. When we got there in the evening, there was no one at
home. They were all up at the farm. So we went to bed. During
the night they all came home. We spent a day or two there and
then drove to Clintonville, Wisconsin.
Friends of Dad's and Mother's had a cottage on Pine Lake and
invited us to spend a few days in it. All the cottages were
empty as the owners had left for the summer.
Ralph decided to drive our car down to the lake and wash it.
Well, that was a dumb thing to do. The wheels just spun in the
sand. We had to look for boards to put under the wheels. That
was a job!
We spent a few days there, then drove home to our apartment
in Hinsdale. I had to be back to teach at Miss Hare's. School
started September 15, as I recall.
LATER YEARS
Sometimes we would take the Burlington train to Chicago to
attend the symphony program in Orchestra Hall. We would climb
many stairs to "nigger heaven," the top sitting area. Dr. Stark
was the conductor. We paid 50 cents to attend.
One time when Dad and I were first married we went to
Orchestra Hall to hear Sousa conduct the orchestra. The
president of the US (I forget which one) was there that night.
He came out on the platform and greeted everyone. In those days
they weren't afraid of being killed so you didn't see any
bodyguards.
After I had been married two years, I had a miscarriage.
Two years later Ruth was born.
When we lived in Downer's Grove, Dave was born. On January
22, Loie's second birthday, Grandmother, Aunt "E" and Aunt Helen
all came to celebrate. Grandmother said in Swedish, "One
celebration leads to something special." Well, it did. Dave was
born 3 days later. It was below zero when Dad and I hurried to
get to the Sanitarium in Hinsdale where Ruth and Loie were born.
Dad had called Dr. Gardiner and Grandmother. Dr. Gardiner met us
at S:OOam and hurried to get me to the delivery room. Dave was
in a hurry to be born. When Dave was born, Dr. Gardiner said,
"I'd say he was a good 9 pounds." Dad asked him, "Did you say,
1 he 111? Dr. Gardiner smiled and nodded his head.
When Dave was 6 weeks old all three of the children had
whooping cough. They didn't cough or vomit during the day. But
during the night when I heard one of the girls coughing and
vomiting, I would run to their room, pull out the messy sheets
and take off their soiled pajamas. When Dave coughed, his body
would get stiff and I was scared. A woman in the neighborhood
called and told me to hold tight to his feet and knock his body
a gainst my shoulder and the flem woul d pop out. Then his body
would get limp. I never found out who that woman was but I think
she saved Dave's life. He weighed 9 pounds, 9 ounces. I
remember I drank 3 quarts of milk a day. He was so hungry. Dr.
Gardiner said, "I don't care what you do, but nurse that baby or
you won't have a son." Dr. Gardiner drove all the way from
LaGrange to Downer's Grove to check up on him. So I said, "We
will get a big bill . " But he said, "Mrs. Smith just had twins
and I am going there too. I will divide the bill between both of
you . "
When Grandmother Holmsten died, Granddad worked in a second
hand store. It was there he bought our three old metal lamps. I
think he paid one dollar for each. Dad made them into electric
lamps for me.
When I went to the dentist in Wheaton, I took all three of
the children with me. The dentist gave each of them a book.
They sat in a corner while the dentist fixed my teeth. He never
complained about the children. Instead he said they were all so
well behaved.
One day in Holmes School the nurse called me and said one of
the boys had punched Lois in the face and broken her gla sses.
The nurse took her to our doctor. So I drove down t own to g e t
her. The doctor had picked bits of glass from her face. He
examined her eyes to see if there was any glass in them. He
didn't find any. I wonder if Lois had been teasing the boy who
hit her.
On Sunday evenings we often listened on the radio to Billy
Graham preach from a little church in Western Springs. I think
this was Billy Graham's first congregation.
When we lived in Wheaton at Christmas time the Swedes would
all go to Dr . Edman•s for Julotta service. Dr. Edman preached in
Swedish and we sang the old Swedish hymns.
Remember when Dave saw the woman picking our berries? She
had filled several pans with berries.
He went in the house to get his toy gun. He ran out to the
berry patch and had the toy gun in his hand. He told the woman
those were our berries. Then she came down to our back door and
told me my son had pointed a gun at her. She was so frightened,
she was shaking. She didn't tell me she had picked our berries.
We didn't know that she was stealing our berries.
Ruth and Lois used to pick berries · and corn and ride over to
Glen Ellyn and sell them. They rode their bikes. One woman
wanted all their berries. They had a large kettle full.
Dave built a tree house in the back yard near the sheep
shed. He wouldn't let the girls in the tree house, but he would
put the cat and Pixie in it.
Dad put the jungle hammock up between two of the apple
trees. Dave slept in it all summer. It had a zipper along one
side to keep out the bugs and a cover over it so he wouldn't get
wet when it rained.
When Mother died we lived in Wheaton.
One evening someone in the family called me and said,
"Mother is dying." I hurried to go but didn't want to drive
alone. I think it was Ruth who came with me.
When I arrived home they said, "Mother is gone." I ran
upstairs to their bedroom and Mother was lying on the bed with
weights on her eyes. It was such a shock.
When the funeral director put her in the coffin they placed
the coffin in the same room where all Mother's plants were in the
windows.
Mrs. Ellen Cedarleaf, a very close friend of Mother and
Dad's, sang the song at Mother's funeral. She cried so hard she
could hardly sing at the cemetery.
I remember the weekend Ruth drove home from Minnesota. When
she was ready to go back the roads were very slippery. Dad
didn't want her to drive alone so Dave and Sally went with her.
Dad, Lois, Karl and I decided to go to Fox Lake to see Aunt
Emma . They were having ice boat races on the frozen lake. Dad,
Lois and Karl went ice skating . I stayed in the house to visit
with Aunt Emma and Newton. Suddenly Newton got up and said he
heard t he bell ringing on the lake. There must be trouble so he
went out to see what happened. In a few minutes he came back and
said there had been an accident. I said, "Was it Ralph?" And he
said, "Yes." Karl and Lois had come in but Dad had stayed to
skate longer. A fellow in an ice boat had come close to the
shore where Dad was skating. The rudder of his boat hit Dad and
cut his leg above the ankle. Newton told me to get my coat and
hat. He said, "We can follow the ambulance to the hospital." It
was several miles away. We drove fast to keep up with the
ambulance. When we got there, I went to find where they had put
Dad. I found him in the operating room. When he saw me he said,
"Look for my billfold." so he was conscious and able to talk.
He was in the operating room 2 1/2 hours. They had called
in a bone surgeon who had just come home from his vacation.
The doctor worked hard to sew up the cut in his head and
sew his leg to his ankle. The bone was cut. When they brought
Ralph to the room where I was waiting the doctor came along and
told me he had done everything he could for Ralph.
They couldn't find a nurse to stay with him. One of the
nuns told me I couldn't stay any longer. I looked down the long
hall and saw several men with white coats on. So I hurried to
them and said I didn't have a nurse. But they said I should stay
with Ralph. They brought me a blanket and a chair and told me to
watch him. If the blood being injected through a tu~e in his arm
stopped, I should go for help . So each time it stopped, I ran
for help.
I stayed all night with him. They gave Loie a blanket and
told her she could lay on the davenport in the reception room.
We both stayed the next day until we found a nurse to take
care of Dad. I drove back and forth each day to the hospital
until Dad was out of danger. After about a week they brought him
home in the ambulance. They had notified the police they needed
their help to carry Dad into the house.
Sally and Dave had come home on the train and had to change
trains in Aurora. Uncle Will met the train and told them what
had happened and brought them home to Wheaton.
When Ralph was in the hospital Herb, Will and Vic came to
see him. So did Pastor Ken Churchhill.
While living in St. Paul, Ruth decided to teach in
California. One day she called me and asked if I ever thought
any of our children would be a missionary. I told her if that
was what God wanted her to do, I couln't say anything. She told
me she wanted to go to Manila as a missionary under The
Navigators.
Two years before Ralph died, Dave and Bonnie came home to
Minnetonka for Thanksgiving. Dave noticed that Dad was getting
weaker. So he advised us to sell the Minnetonka house and move·
to Topeka so we could be near them.
Dad lived just two years after we moved to Topeka.
It was January 28, 1983 that God took Dad home . He had gone
for a walk after breakfast. We had prayed together before Dad
went for a walk. I asked him if he had his rubbers on his shoes.
He smiled and said, "Yes, Mother . " After I asked if he had his
warm coat on, he said, "Yes, Mother," smiling at me. Then I
asked if he was wearing his warm cap. Then, "Yes, Mother." He
gave me a tight hug and kiss and left. I watched for him to come
up the street but I didn't see him. He would always be back in
an hour.
Then the phone rang and a woman's voice asked me if I was
related to Ralph Holmsten. I said, "Yes." She said he was in
the hospital and was not breathing on his own. They wanted to
know who my doctor was. I said, "My son is a doctor." So she
said, "Get dressed. Your son will be there in a few minutes to
get you. " He did come in a few minutes . I asked him if it was
serious and he said, "It could be. " When we arrived at the
hospital we were put in a p r ivate room. I had called Bonnie and
she came in a few minutes. The nurse told Dave to walk down the
hall. So he did. When he came back he was crying like a little
boy . I knew the answer. I just prayed out loud, "Thank you,
God, for taking him so quickly."
Dad had always been so active with his Gideon work and
gardening. It would have been very hard for him to be
handicapped in any way . God gave me peace about it all. I knew
it was part of God ' s plan. It was very hard to adjust to being
alone.
The children all came home for the funeral. Ruth had
already moved home from Manila and was working for The Navigators
in Colorado Springs. She was going to be living alone. However
she didn't want to live alone . I didn't either . so we decided
that we should live together.
I was alone for three months packing all our belongings. I
sold the house in three days . Dave rented a trailer and packed
all our belongings in it. Then Dave and Bonnie drove me to
Colorado Springs.

Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.

MEMORIES
By Ethel Karlson Holmsten
Christmas 1990
EARLY YEARS
When we lived in the back of the store on First Street,
Mother would go into the store to wait on the customers and climb
the long ladder to bring down boxes of shoes. She did this the
night before one of us was born. Mormor (Mother's Mother) stayed
with us children.
LIVING ON SOUTH LINCOLN STREET IN HINSDALE
One year all three of us girls had scarlet fever, measles
and chicken pox. Aunt Lill had started school and got each of
these, one after another, and passed them on to Aunt "E" and
myself. We were in quarantine for several months. In those days
we had to have a large sign on our outside door, telling
e verybody about each disease. our Dad was not allowed to live at
home and spread the disease to someone else.
The spring after all this sickness I was 3 or 4 years old
and ate green grapes that were not ripe. I developed peritonitis
and was very sick. My family did not think I was going to live.
They hired a trained nurse to take care of me. I was so weak s he
c ouldn't move me to change my night gown, so she cut the back of
it from top to bottom. She could get my arms in my nightie a nd
j ust lay the rest of it around my body. Mormor would come in t o
my room before she went to bed and look at me thinking I wou l d be
dead by morning. God had other plans for me. I had to learn how
t o walk all over again and talk too, I guess. The doctor came in
to see how I was and left some pills in small glass bottles. My
nurse put some l i ttle flowers in the empty bottles and pu t them
beside my bed.
Uncle Siggie was born when we lived in that house. It was
a l l on one floor.
I remember the day we moved from south Lincoln street to
north Lincoln Street. It must have been after supper. Mother ,
Mo rmor, Aunt Lill, Aunt "E" and I walked. Siggie was in the baby
buggy. He couldn't walk. It was beginning to get dark. Someone
h ad wound up the clock and put it in the baby carriage . As we
walked along the alarm on the clock went off.
LIVING ON NORTH LINCOLN STREET
I do not remember going into the house on north Lincoln but
I do remember when Arthur was born. When Mother was in labor we
children were sent next door to the Mark.man's. They were such
good neighbors.
How well I remember when the little Markman girl fell out of
the upstairs window to the ground. Mrs. Markman came running to
Mother with the little girl. She was so frightened. As long as
that little girl lived she suffered from that fall. The parents
through the years took her to different doctors, but nothing
could cure her.
The house on north Lincoln was a large two-story house, five
bedrooms upstairs, no bathroom. Downstairs we had a large
kitchen with one door to a stairway going upstairs, another down
to the cellar, one to the only bathroom, one back door to the
outside and the fifth door to the adjoining dining room.
The kitchen was the most lived-in room in the house. It was
the length of the whole back of the house. We had a large pantry
between the door going upstairs and the door going to the cellar.
We only used the dining room when we had company.
We also had a sitting room, a parlor and a front hall with
stairs going up and one front door going outside. Thus we had
two sets of stairs going up to the second floor, one in the back
and one in the front of the house.
Off the kitchen was the bathroom but it did not have a
cellar under it. In cold weather the pipes would freeze and we
could not use the tub f or bathing. The pipes would freeze for
the toilet and mother would wrap heavy towels around the pipes,
put an empty pail under the pipes and pour boiling water on the
towels to keep the pipes from freezing.
When we were alone as a family we always ate in the kitchen.
We had two stoves: a gas stove for warm weather and a coal­burning
one for cold weather.
After supper every Saturday Mother bathed us in front of the
wood stove. We had a large galvanized tub that Mother bathed us
in. The boys first, then the girls. The kitchen was warm and
cozy with all doors shut to keep it warm. We children used to
chase each other up one stairs and down the other.
Mormor's bedroom was in the middle of the north side of the
house. We walked through her room to go down the backstairs to
the kitchen. Grandmother Karlson had a nice room on the south
side upstairs.
Our home on north Lincoln had a large two story barn. We
loved that big barn. Downstairs there was a large room where we
kept the lawn mower and Dad's tools which hung on the wall. Next
to that was a sliding door into the two rooms where our chickens
roosted. There was a door leading out to the fenced-in area for
the chickens. In one corner of the larger room Dad had nailed
wooden boxes on the walls where the hens could lay their eggs.
When Dad cut the grass he saved the cut grass to dry upstairs in
the barn. He then used the dry grass to fill the hens' boxes.
This made a nice nest for them.
When Mother ran out of eggs for her cooking, she sent Aunt
"E" out for eggs. Aunt "E" banged on the wall, preached to the
chickens and told them to lay eggs. It worked. She always came
in with eggs for Mother. It became a family joke.
In our front yard we had a black walnut tree. Each fall we
gathered in the nuts and spread them out to dry on the floor in
the little room upstairs in the barn. On Sunday afternoons Art,
Siggie and I went up there and cracked the nuts and ate the
"meat". They were as hard as rocks to crack . We had to use a
brick and hammer to break them.
One Sunday when we came up there almost all the nuts were
gone - just a dozen or so left. We couldn ' t understand what had
happened.
The former owners of our home had raised pigeons . There was
a small opening above the window for the pigeons to come and go.
The squirrels had found the hole and carried the nuts away.
When we moved to this house on north Lincoln street we found
a miniature barn in the big barn. Some child had left his little
barn for us. We loved it .
One fall the boys decided to put the miniature barn up in
the big coffee tree in the back yard. They put a lot of
uncracked nuts in the barn for the squirrels to eat during the
winter.
In the spring Siggie climbed up to see how many nuts were
left. He put his hand in the little barn. The wasps had decided
to build a nest there. They came out and s t ung Siggie in many
places . He screamed. Mother heard him and came running. Did
you ever try climbing a ladder in a long skirt? Well , Mother
did! At the same time she tried to help Siggie come down.
Naturally he hurt all over but Mother persisted and got him down.
She brought him to the pump by the back door . There she pumped
cold water all over him . Mormor didn't know what all the
excitement was about. Mother got Siggie into the house and
started to undress him when Mot her screamed. A wasp had gotten
under her skirt and stung her . Now we had two patients . It was
an exciting experience.
We had a billy goat who didn't like to get wet . When it
rained and he was tied out in the back yard, he made a lot of
noise. One time when it started to rain, Mother told Siggie to
run and get the goat in the barn. Siggie and goat both ran for
the barn . Siggie took hold of the barn door to open it but the
goat didn't think he was working fast enough so he bucked Siggie
in the back. Siggie tried again to open the door and was bucked
again. This time the goat ' s horn caught in Siggie's knickers
(the knickers just came to his knee s) . The horns ripped his
knickers to the waist. Art and I were standing in the kitchen
door laughing . Mother came over to see why we were laughing.
She picked up her skirts and ran in the rain to get the goat in
the barn. In those days the women ' s skirts came to the floor.
We also had a pet ring dove. Dad made a house for him to
live in. One side of the box was covered with a screen. We
opene d a cor ner to feed him and t o let him come out on Saturdays
when Mother cleaned the kitchen . She put a pie tin of lukewarm
water on the table so he could take a bath . He got in and
splashed and had a great time.
In the summer time we let him outside to fly around the
yard. We had him for many years. In the evening we went outside
and held up his bowl with his food in it. Sometimes he wouldn't
come so one of the boys would climb up the tree where he was. He
then picked him up, put h i m inside his shirt and placed him in
his cage in the kitchen. ·
One Fourth of July someone forgot and let him outside. He
was afraid of the noise of the firecrackers . I r emember going
around looking in the trees for him but we never found him . He
had been frightened away.
One Saturday afternoon, Mother didn ' t have meat for Sunday
dinner so she walked to the butcher shop and asked for a chicken.
All he had was a live hen . So she carried it home. Well, that
hen kept saying, "paw, paw." We fell in love with her. She was
our ·pet for a long time. I don't know what Mother did about meat
for that Sunday dinner.
When we lived on North Lincoln Street, Edythe and I slept
together. When she was cold she put the blankets around her and
I would wake up because I was cold. That happened many times.
Finally one night I was disgusted . Here she was all wrapped up
and warm . So I just gave her a push and she rolled off to the
floor. I didn't dare tell her what I did until years later when
we were grown up. Then I asked her if she remembered the time
she fell out of bed. I told her what had happened and we all
laughed about it.
One spring Siggie and Art walked down to the creek. There
was still ice on the creek and the boys started to walk on the
ice. A big chunk of ice broke loose with them on it. Well, it
tipped and both boys fell in that cold water. All they could do
was head for home. They didn ' t want Mother to see their wet
clothes so they went up the front stairs to change to dry ones.
I don't remember what Mother did when she found all those wet
clothes .
Another time they climbed up a young tree .
in the tree and the other was lower down. They
it. That was great but suddenly the tree broke
ground and both boys hit the ground. They were
the ground so hard. Siggie asked Art, "Are you
Well, their backs did ache!
One was high up
started to rock
off near the
dazed by hitting
all right?"
Mother had a sister, Aunt Sophie, who lived in Chicago.
Mormor visited her some times, but Aunt Sophie died when I was
little. She died on the operating table. Mother knew she was
having surgery and that she had been very sick . I was with
Mother when she said she heard a bell ring and Mother said, "Now
Sophie is gone."
Aunt Sophie and her husband Uncle Charlie (who worked for
Carson, Pirie and Scott Wholesale House) had had two sons. Each
one died before he was two years old . When Aunt Sophie was so
sick, she said, "Now I know why God has taken my little boys home
before He took me . "
In those days Dad was allowed to buy many things from
Carson, Pirie and Scott wholesale. I bought our maple table and
two chairs from Carsons. We still have them.
Dad had an Italian man to repair the shoes. We had to take
turns helping Dad wait on the customers on Saturdays. Usually I
stayed home and helped Mother in the kitchen.
On the way home from high school we would stop in Dad's
store before walking home . If I came into the store and my shoes
were not shined, Nick would pick me up, put me on top of Dad's
big safe, polish my shoes and scold me, all in fun.
He rode back and forth on the Burlington train to Chicago
where he lived. He always waited to hear the train whistle as it
came around the bend about a mile away. Then he grabbed his
jacket, dashed down the street and got on the train before it
started again.
He loved playing jokes on us girls. He was always well
dressed when he came to work. He would remove his coat and hang
it up in the back of the store. One day we took his coat, sewed
up the sleeves so he couldn't put the coat on. Then we sewed the
front of the coat to the back of the coat. When he tried to put
on his jacket he realized what we had done. He said later that
he sat on the train and pulled threads out of his jacket all the
way to Chicago.
One April first (April Fool's Day) he called our house and
asked to speak to Edythe. He changed the sound of his voice and
told her he wanted to have his little girl take piano lessons
from Aunt "E". So we made plans for her to come to our house for
her lesson. Aunt "E" was happy to have another pupil. About
five minutes later he called again and wanted to talk to Aunt
"E" . All he said was "April Fools". He enjoyed playing jokes on
us, and of course, we got even.
One day the Lions Club of business men went to visit the
Chicago stock yards . That evening Dad couldn't e at his supper.
He had watched them butcher the cows and pigs and it had turned
his stomach.
Dad's full name was Emmanuel Zacheus Jacob Karlson . When
the folks moved to Hinsdale from Chicago, Dad had an insurance
policy and signed it with his full name.
His shoe store was just across the street from the post
office. When he received a letter from the insurance company
they had his whole name written on it. The postman there knew no
one in town with that name so they returned it to the company.
That was a lesson to Dad. He dropped all the names but Mr.
Emmanuel Karlson.
There was a milk man by the name of Carlson and the post
office would get the mail mixed up . Dad at first wrote his name
with a "C". Then he changed it to Karlson with a "K". So our
mail was not mixed up after that.
North of Hinsdale and north of Ogden Avenue, there was a
large area of woods, and beyond that, a creek. The water was not
deep. we could wade in it.
In the woods we childron found caves where the black slaves
hid. Gradually from there ·:hey worked their way north to the
border of Canada where they were safe. I remember in one cave we
found a shelf with dishes on it.
We loved to go to the w.~ ods and the creek. On the east side
of the road to the creek thers was a large stone h ouse. In front
of it was a stone wall about JS inches tall and we loved to walk
on that stone wall. Many times someone in the house would knock
at the window. And that meant, "Get off that stone wall!"
I remember one time the house caught on fire and the firemen
threw a trunk out the window. When it landed on the ground, it
flew open. Inside were beautiful pieces of expensive lace. The
owner of the house (a woman) would steal this lace and take it
home. She was a cleptomaniac . Her husband knew it. He told the
department stores in Chicago to just charge it to his account.
Auntie Doans lived across the street from us. She owned a
lot of property in Hinsdale and Chicago as well as a large track
of woods north of Hinsdale. In the woods there was a small brick
building where she kept the coffins of her husband and children.
We children would go out there . On two sides of the building
there was an opening the size of a brick. We children took a
piece of newspaper, folded it up and lit one end and stuck it in
one opening. Then we ran around the building to the other
opening to look through the hole into the room now illuminated by
our lit newspaper on the other side. There were two large
coffins and one small one. When Auntie died, the lock to this
building was so rusty they couldn't open it to put the coffin
inside, so they buried her outside.
One day while Auntie was still living, Mother asked me to go
to her house to see how she was. I knocked on the door and she
called, "Come in . " She was lying on the couch and asked me to
come over to her. She put up her arms to welcome me and I got so
frightened, I said, "I will get Mother." I ran home and told
Mother, "Auntie is dying." So Mother ran over. She was sick and
Mother and Dad knew she was not a Christian so they asked our
Christian neighbors, the Nobles, to go with them to talk to
Auntie. I don't remember if Auntie accepted the Lord but she did
die later.
When Mother and Dad had something that we needed to pray
about, they asked us children to come into their bedroom. We all
got down on our knees around their bed and took turns praying
about it. It made quite an impression on us children.
My first grade teacher, Louise Blodget, used to say, "If
your head wasn't attached to your body, you would leave it at
home." That was whenever we forgot something.
She lived in the next block north of our house. She had a
feather bow that she wore around her neck. Sometimes she would
lose it on the way to school. We would find it and return it to
her.
The teachers in the sixth grade couldn't handle the boys.
Finally they gave us an older married woman for a teacher. She
took the boys by the nose and shook them. It was hard not to
laugh.
When we lived in the old house on North Lincoln Street, Dad
was the choir director. Edythe and I sang in the choir. One
evening Dad, Edythe and I went to choir practice and Siggie
walked up to his house that was being built. That evening as we
were singing Edythe and I saw the church door open. There was
Siggie with brown stuff all over his head and clothes. We told
Dad. Edythe and I ran all the way home with Siggie. we took him
to the back door and pumped water on his head. Then we helped
him get his top clothes off , so Mother couldn ' t see him . She
would have fainted, I think. He had fallen from the second floor
window into a large box of brown dry cement mix .
Grandma Mutron would walk from Chicago to Hinsdale carrying
two suitcases of clothes to sell. She had several homes where
she stopped over night. Ours was one. She slept in the sitting
room on the couch. Mother gave her breakfast . Sometimes Dad
took her home to Chicago in the car.
The Old Plank Road (later renamed Ogden Avenue) was the main
road from Chicago to Downers Grove. It was called the Old Plank
Road because wooden planks had been laid down on it to cover the
mud which would have been unnavigatable in rainy weather. This
road went through Fullersburg, now called Hinsdale. Garfield
Street in Hinsdale ended on this road. To the east of Garfield
on the Plank Road was an old inn named Lincoln Inn. It was
called the Lincoln Inn because Abraham Lincoln had stayed
overnight there once.
MEMORIES OF MY GRANDPARENTS
We were nine in my family. Mother and Dad, two grandmothers
and five children. Dad's mother was lame. It was hard for her
to get around.
Mother's Mother, or Mormor, was four years younger. She
often joined us in our fun. She was a real pal. I remember one
time bringing home a stray kitten. It was yellow with blue eyes.
I told Mother and Grandmother I couldn't help it. It reminded me
of the Swedish flag which is blue with a yellow cross through it.
I was allowed to keep it.
As we grew up, we girls started wearing silk stockings.
Mormor thought that was terrible. How could we keep our legs
warm?
In the evening after dinner, our Grandmothers did the
dishes. Mormor washed and Farmor, Dad's Mother, dried the
dishes. Then Mormor would sit at the kitchen table and read her
Swedish newspapers and her Bible. As she read her Bible she
would look up, clap her hands and sing in Swedish: "Aren't Thou
coming soon, Lord? Aren't Thou coming soon?" I can still see
her sitting there.
One cold Tuesday morning in the middle of January, the
family woke up. Mormor had had a stroke. She could not speak or
move. Mother gave her a spoon full of the liquid in fruit soup
and Mormor was able to press Mother's hand, so we knew her mind
was not affected. That Friday evening when the doctor came to
see Mormor, he said he didn't think she would live until morning.
We all sat around her bed, the doctor, too. Every breath Mormor
took was shorter than the last one. And the space between her
breathes was longer. At midnight Mormor took her last breath and
went home to her Lord. Our doctor said, "I hope I can go as
Mormor did." It was a beautiful experience for all of us.
Mormor always said she didn't want to go in the cold winter.
But the day she was buried the snow had melted and the birds were
chirping in the cemetery. Mother said, "God answered Mormor's
prayers."
It's wonderful to have these happy memories of my childhood .
What a privilege to be raised in a Christian home. Those of you
who still have children living at home be sure to spend time with
them. Show them that you love them. Teach them to pray, listen
to them.
Grandfather and Grandmother Karlson came from Sweden to
visit us but Grandfather did not like America. While coming here
on the boat, someone had passed out a bright red fruit, a sample
of the fruit from America. Grandfather took one and bit into it
and it fell to pieces. He thought it was a ripe apple. Instead
it was a ripe tomato and he was very upset.
My grandparents did not stay long. He wanted to go back to
Sweden, which they did. They lived there as long as Grandfather
was alive. After his death Grandmother wanted to return to the
States.
One day at the Ladies Aid Meeting in Sweden Grandmother met
a girl who had been visiting Sweden but was returning to the us.
Grandmother asked her when she was leaving. She was leaving in a
few days. Grandmother asked her if she could travel with her.
I also remember the cold winter morning when Dad was waiting
on a customer and someone came walking into the store. Dad
looked up and there came Grandmother Karlson. No one knew she
was coming. It was bitter cold. Dad called home and told
Mother . Then he called a taxi (an unheard- of thing to do ) . He
knew his Mother could not walk far in the cold.
Well, all the relatives from Chicago, Libertyville and
Hinsdale came that Sunday to our house. This included Aunt
Marie, Aunt Emma and Uncle Oscar. How did Mother ever have
enough food in the house for that crowd? But she did.
I had a date with Nathaniel Wendel from our church to go
with him to Chicago to hear the Messiah so I had to miss all the
excitement.
PISTAKE BAY
Mother and Dad belonged to a group of people who were all
shoe store owners. Together they owned a cottage at Pistake Bay.
Each family was allowed to spend two weeks at the cottage. The
first family to go in the spring could go as early as they wanted
to. The last one in the fall could stay as late as they wanted
to. We rotated each year so each family did not have the same
time every year.
We children would pack our dolls and toys in the trunk.
After we were in bed Mother would take them all out and fill the
trunk with clothes for all of us.
We rode the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy train to Chicago
and changed trains at the Union Station t o take one to Fox Lake.
When we got off that train there were several big buses
lined up to take the people to their cottages. Each driver
shouted where his bus was going . Our bus driver shouted,
"Pistake Bay, the boat landing." He kept shouting u.ntil the bus
was full.
Dad arranged to have our trunk of clothes transferred from
the train to our bus. The trunks were put on the top of the bus.
It was a long drive through the woods to our cottage. such
excitement for us children.
Our cottage was up on a hill. There were about thirty steps
to climb. There was a boat house near the lake where the row
boats were stored.
One year we were the first to go . There had been a fire in
the cottage. Workmen had repaired the cottage but had not
cleaned it up. There were little pieces of boards and sawdust,
bugs and spiders everywhere. There were no beds so we all slept
on mattresses on the floor. Mother was afraid the bugs would
crawl into our ears so she put cotton in them.
There was one man in the club who always came alone. He
stayed at the nearby hotel. His wife never came with him. She
wanted to go to a classy resort.
This man, Mr . Rhodes, would come over to our cottage and
entertain us children. He always made up stories to tell us. We
all loved him.
One time Uncle Oscar came to spend a few days with us. Aunt
Tillie must have come too. Uncle Oscar loved to play tricks on
us. Edythe emptied the sugar bowl and put salt in it instead. ·we
offered the sugar to Uncle Oscar for his coffee. He helped
himself and stirred his coffee and took a mouthfull. He rea l ized
it was salt and didn ' t want to swallow his mouthfull . So he
started to wave his hands and tell everybody not to take any. Of
course we all had fun laughing at him.
One time he was going to show us girls how to clear the
table of dishes. He took hold of the corners of the oil cloth
which was on the table and lifted up the cloth with dishes,
silverware, all lumped together. He walked out to the kitchen
and dumped the cloth on the cupboard.
CHRISTMAS MEMORIES
I remember one Christmas Eve, we were waiting for Dad to
come home from the store. Suddenly we heard a window slam shut.
We ran into the bedroom and there on the floor was a large bag.
We thought Santa had dropped it into our house. When we opened
it, there was Aunt Lill ' s doll all dressed in new clo~hes and
Aunt "E"'s doll dressed in new clothes and mine too.
Mr. Hord worked in Dad's shoe store and he and his wife did
not have any children. Each Christmas Mrs. Hord took our dolls
and made new clothes for them.
I remember one evening getting ready for the Sunday School
Christmas program at church. My next older sister, Edythe, was
going to play the pump organ for the Sunday School program and
wear her red dress. She had washed a pair of her stockings and
hung them behind the cook stove to dry . When she came to get
them they were gone. We all helped her look for them but no one
could find them. Mormor said we had all better see if anyone had
taken Edythe's stockings. She lifted up her skirt and there
were Edythe's silk stockings on Mormor's legs. She always
thought it was terrible that we girls wore silk stockings. Hers
were heavy cotton. We all had a good laugh. Mormor always hung
her warm cotton stockings behind the stove to dry. We sure
teased her about it. Mormor laughed as much as we did. She was
always a good sport.
Another Christmas Eve we were again waiting for Dad to come
home from the store for our usual Christmas Eve supper. Dad
never closed the doors of the store until the last customer left.
Many people came in late to shop. Sometimes he didn't come home
until midnight. It was hard for us children to have to wait so
late for Dad. Mother would take a toothpick and bend it to crack
but not to break and attach the bent end to our eye lid to keep
us awake.
Someone, either Mother or Lillie (my older sister), had put
a candle on a plate, lit it and given it to my little brother,
Arthur, just three years old. No one noticed him leave the
kitchen until we heard him scream. We ran. He had leaned over
the lit candle and his clothes were on fire. My sister, Lillie,
grabbed a small rug and wrapped it around him to put out the
fire. Of course we were frightened but that kept us awake until
Dad came home.
In our little church in Hinsdale we always celebrated
Christmas in the Swedish tradition. Early Christmas day we got
up in the dark and walked to church for "Julotta", a five o'clock
service. Dad and Edythe left before Mother and the rest of us.
Edythe played the old pump organ at the service. It was dark
when Mother and the rest of us walked to church. The moon was
out and I remember telling Mother that was God watching over us.
The windows in the church were tall and narrow. In the
middle of each were 3 tall candles lit for the service. Coming
in the dark for the five o'clock service, those lit candles made
a beautiful picture.
Inside we always had a huge Christmas tree on the platform
all decorated with tinsel and real candles. The candles were not
lit for that service but always for our Sunday School Christmas
program. This was our Swedish "Julotta" service. One of the
dads had a fish pole with a rag soaked in water to put out a
candle when it burned too low. We always sang the beautiful
Swedish Christmas songs.
Mother always made rice pudding for Christmas Eve. It was a
Swedish tradition to put ground almonds in the pudding and one
whole almond. Whoever found the whole almond in their rice
pudding was the next one to get married . Christmas after
Christmas Mormor found the whole almond in her pudding. How? We
did not know. We of course would tease her about it. She was
always a good sport!
Dad was superintendent of our Sunday School. Every
Christmas he bought apples to give out to each child at our
Sunday School's Christmas program. He also bought a big box of
candy and we girls helped fill the little paper boxes with candy
for the children . Dad always bought a box of chocolates for our
family. Each Sunday after dinner he got the l~rge box out. We
children were allowed one piece only each week until the box was
empty.
MEMORIES OF OUR LITTLE CHURCH IN HINSDALE
For several years in our church we had a bachelor as a
minister. He could write perfect English but had a hard time
pronouncing it. One Sunday Dad (he was the Sunday School
Superintendent) asked him if he would like to say something to
the children. He got up in front of the Sunday School and said,
"Who wants to be the 'dickens ' of the church?" No one answered.
So he said it again. Still no answer, no one held up their hand
and he, the pastor, turned to my Dad and said, "Karlson, vat is
da matter vit dese kids? No von vants ta be da dickens of dis
church." I looked at my Dad sitting up in front to the side.
Dad's head was bent down and he was trying not to laugh. Poor
Dad! He just got up and announced a song for us to sing. Of
course we children didn't dare laugh. That would be too rude.
We did not have electric lights in those days. We had gas
lights. I remember one Sunday evening after we had just
installed electric lights in the church, the lights went out.
The workmen had left only one gas light in the ceiling. In order
to light the gas light, we had to pull a chain to it. All was
pitch darkness. It was very quiet when out of the dark our
pastor shouted, "Vat is da matter? Vy can't ya pull da chain?"
Well, in our homes we pulled the chain when the toilet needed
flushing. That shout about pulling the chain made everyone laugh
- children and grownups as well.
The same pastor used to call me his little girl. The young
ladies in the church would tease h im. One day someone asked the
pastor if he had ever given his little girl a box of candy. Low
and behold one day he came over to our house and gave me a box of
candy. Of course that was some present. We didn't get much
candy in those days.
That reminds me. Mother always charged the groceries and
once a month she would give one of us the bill and the money to
pay it with. We took turns doing it because the grocer always
gave us a little striped bag of candy. We shared it with the
others.
COLLEGE MEMORIES
When I went to college we got off the train (Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy) at Canal Street, and ran between the
trains and freight trains to catch the street car to South
Michigan Street. Sometimes we took the train to the loop down
town, then we took the street car to National College of
Education.
I graduated after two years, but took another year and
graduated from a three year course. Most of the girls didn't go
any further than two years to get a better job .
SIGGIE AND HELEN'S WEDDING
We left home to go to Iowa for Siggie and Helen's wedding .
Helen's family lived on a farm near Gowrie .
It was a beautiful day when we arrived. However by the time
the ceremony, which was outside, was ready to begin in the
afternoon, it started to rain. The guests were arriving. The
pastor was ready to marry them. Then the young people of the
area came, carrying pots and pans and e qu ipment to upset the
service. They banged away so we couldn't hear the pastor talking
to Siggie and Helen and helping them make their vows to each
other.
Suddenly it started to rain harder . Soon it was a downpour.
The guests ran inside, the noise makers ran home. It really
poured. In those days the Iowa roads were mud roads.
The guests were served a supper but the downpour continued.
When the pastor and his wife left they thought they could get
safely home, but they soon returned to the farm. The roads were
water soaked, they couldn ' t drive.
By bedtime it still poured; no one dared to drive home .
Many slept on the floor. Someone planted an alarm clock under
Siggie and Helen's bed. It rang during the night.
The next day the roads were terrible . Mrs. Swanson (Helen's
mother) served breakfast to all of us. Some people drove home
through the corn fields. Dad didn ' t dare drive . There were no
highways in those days. We stayed for two days if I remember
correctly. When we started out, we came to one place where we
could see some one had gotten stuck. Dad tried to get through.
The wheels just churned in the mud. Siggie and Helen were with
us in the car. Siggie got out of the car and was able to get a
few boards from a fence to put under the wheels. Siggie had on
his best shoes. They were a mess. Good thing it wasn ' t raining.
I had to get home. The next day my classes started at
college and I had to be there. We finally arrived home two days
after my classes started.
Siggie and Helen continued their honeymoon. I don't
remember where they went but they settled in Hinsdale. It was
after this that Siggie fell out of the second floor window of the
house, which they were building, into the brown powder .
AT MISS HARE'S
1106 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago
My first job was teaching at Miss Hare's in Chicago. Miss
Hare was the owner of a boarding school for girls from wealthy
families. I taught first grade at this school. These were the
years 1925-1928. People like the Armours and Swifts sent their
daughters to this school.
I lived at school the first year and came home weekends. I
took the Burlington train to the Union Station in Chicago, then
the bus on Michigan Avenue to school. The bus was a double
decker. I usually rode on top when the weather was good. When I
lived at school we used to walk down South Michigan Avenue and
enjoy window shopping.
One Sunday evening when I came back to school after being
home for the weekend with my family in Hinsdale, I noticed that
our entrance was wet. I asked Miss Williams, our housemother, if
it had rained and she said "No". Then she realized the third
floor girls were having some fun. She asked me .to go up and see
what they were doing. They told me they wouldn't tell unless I
promised not to tell Miss Williams. They had been throwing water
out the window when some young fellows went by. The one leading
was a girl who was always very proper. So I had to promise I
would not tell Miss Williams who it was.
One night the fourth floor girls invited the 2nd floor girls
for a party. Each girl was supposed to bring a spoon. Bernice
Carlson went down to the first floor to get spoons. She was
walking toward the kitchen when she heard someone winding a
clock. It was our houseman checking the doors and windows to be
sure they were locked. Bernice was frightened and closed her
eyes and made believe she was walking in her sleep. That is just
what our houseman thought so he ran upstairs to get Miss Will iams
and tell her Bernice was walking in her sleep. She started to
cry as Miss Williams came down the stairs.
Bernice was sure she would be expelled but Miss Williams put
her arms around her and said, "Bernice, it's all right. Don't be
afraid. It's me, Miss Williams."
Miss Williams brought Bernice up to her room and put a chair
against the door so the girls could not open it from the inside .
Now they couldn't get to the party.
The next morning when I was in my bathroom the girls were
knocking at the door saying, "Karly, open up."
Then they told me what had happened. They were all excited
and laughing. They used to tell me about their pranks.
When my first-graders came in t he morning, the girls
curtsied and the boys bowed and said, "Good morning."
Every morning one of the maids served us cocoa and
sandwiches.
One evening after dinner the girls came knocking at my door
and told me Dorothy had r un away. She had asked me if she could
go downstairs and see if there was a package for her. They were
never allowed on the first floor after dinner. Of course I had
to tell Miss Hare and she asked me to stay and help her call her
parents. I got the telephone numbers and she did the talking but
we didn't reach the parents until late in the evening. About
midnight we heard them knocking at the front door. They asked
Miss Hare to take her back but Miss Hare said, "No, I can't be
responsible for your daughter."
On Sunday evenings when I came back to school I would bring
flowers with me from mother's yard. I would give each of the
older teachers a few.
One evening when I knocked at Miss Smith's door she called,
"Come in." There sat a little old bald-headed woman . I did not
know her and she laughed. "It's me," she said. She had her wig
in her hands. She was brushing it and putting it up for the next
day.
She told me one day she had an appointment in the loop and
hurried to catch the next bus. She got on the bus and realized
she didn't have her wig on, Q.D1y her hat but she stayed on the
bus and went to the appointment.
Another evening at dinner one of the teachers told us about
one of the wealthy women who always knew how to put on her make­up.
She had preserved her complexion so well, I said she was
well pickled. our teacher was shocked and said, "Miss Karlson!"
But the rest all laughed so hard.
There was one story at Miss Hare's that was passed down to
every new girl.
One evening one of the girls had bought a blueberry pie and
was giving each girl a piece. One girl didn't like hers so she
threw it out the window. In a few minutes there was a knock at
the door and there stood Miss Hare and a young man. He had blue­berry
pie all over his shirt and jacket. Of course the girl who
had thrown the pie out the window apologized and said she would
have his clothes cleaned. Several weeks later she was at a dance
and a young man asked her to dance. But she said she was sorry
but she had never been introduced to him. He said, "I am the
fellow you threw the pie on." Well, it ended up they were
married so it was a happy ending.
When the mayor of Chicago went to work, he came down Lake
Shore Drive past our school. First there was a motorcycle, then
a couple of cars, then the limousine with the mayor, then another
cycle. All the sirens were blasting away. When we heard all the
racket we knew the mayor was going to work.
My Dad's Grandfather (my Great Grandfather) was of the r oyal
family of Russia. That was before the communists took over. My
Great Grandfather was not allowed to marry his commoner sweet­heart.
But they lived together as husband and wife. They had 4
or 5 children. My Grandfather was a son in this family.*
When the communists took over, they killed all the members
of the royal family - all but a young couple and baby boy who
fled to America. They landed in Chicago. When they arrived in
Chicago, they had nothing. But he loved horses and with the help
of someone, he started a riding horse company. The wealthy
Chicago people would rent one of the horses to go horseback
* He apparently left Russia before the communists took over. His
wife was Farmor (Father's Mother) who lived with Mother's family
while she was a child .
riding. This is how he got on his feet financially.
When I was teaching first grade at Miss Hare ' s the little
son of this couple came to our kindergarten.** I used to wonder
if he and I were related. I didn't even tell Mother and Dad
about him. I could have talked to this couple and told them who
I was but I didn't.
I told a sister-in- law once that my Great Grandfather was of
the royal family of Russia . She thought I was crazy.
My Aunt Hannah of Visby, Sweden, had all that information
about my Great Grandfather written in her Bible. Aunt "E" knew
about that and I think Aunt Hannah showed Aunt "E" her Bible.
That was sixty years ago.
Gretchen Karlson Wasson and her family are on a tour to
Sweden now, June 1990. They plan to visit Visby. I called her
the evening before they left and reminded her about this Russian
couple. I also reminded her of my Uncle John, my Dad ' s brother,
who was a professor in Upsala University in Sweden.
My Dad went back to Sweden in 1911 to visit my Uncle John
who was very sick. Dad told us Uncle John was bedridden but the
two of them prayed, read their Bible and sang t ogether.
A few days after Dad arrived home from Sweden, he received a
cablegram that Uncle John had died. After he died his wife did
not want her children to have the Karlson name so she renamed her
children by her maiden name. My Dad was very upset about this.
I asked Gretchen to check the records at Upsala University
to see if she could find out anything about Uncle John's
children.
I used to remember Grandpa and Grandmother Karlson's address
in Visby. I think it was on "Kungsgattan" - King ' s Street,
Visby.
Miss Nolte was the principal at Miss Hare's School .
after I left the school, she kept in touch with me. She
little socks for Ruth and Lois when they were born. She
before Dave was born.
Even
made
died
I taught first grade until I got married and t aught only one
more year after that.
** Sometimes they allowed the younger brothers of daughters who
were enrolled at "Miss Hare's" to come to Kindergarten or first
grade.
OUR WEDDING - September 6, 1927
After the Grandmothers had both died, Mother and Dad decided
to build a new house. Mother didn't want to leave her garden.
So Dad hired a builder to move our old house to an empty lot 2 or
3 blocks away.
I didn't know then why Mother didn't want to leave her
garden. Mother had had a miscarriage and they had buried the
tiny body in Mother's flower garden. Years later when Mother and
Dad had sold the new house, the new couple wanted to enlarge the
back of the house and the builder found the bones of the baby.
The new owner was a doctor and realized it was a human skeleton.
When we were planning our wedding, Mother and Dad wanted us
to be married in the garden at home. our little frame church
didn't seat very many people.
Edythe played the piano for the wedding. The piano was in
the house and with the windows open, we could hear it in the
garden. Lill was maid of honor and Bert, Ralph~s next younger
brother was best man. Lill had made my wedding dress and I made
the veil and little head ornament of lace.
As Dad and I came out the front door to go around to the
back yard, it began to sprinkle a little and someone handed Dad a
black umbrella.
Ralph had made Mother an arbor for her climbing roses. We
were married in front of the arbor in the back yard.
I remember as we stood in front of our pastor, I heard Bert
say, "I'm glad this isn't my suit." He had borrowed it from
someone. We were married under the black umbrella even though
there was very little rain.
Dad and Mother had hired a woman from our church, a caterer,
to serve a dinner to the guests. Bert and Fred worked for an ice
cream firm in st. Paul, so they brought ice cream for dessert.
As the guests started to leave the single fellows tried to
kidnap Ralph but Edgar and Dad got Ralph and me up the stairs.
We realized they wanted to have some fun. They had parked their
cars in the neighbor's driveway.
We decided to fool them. We turned off the lights
downstairs, went upstairs and turned the lights out there as
well. So the fun lovers left one by one. They thought we were
going to sleep at home. When we saw the cars leave, Dad brought
his car to the back door. Edgar and Dad drove around the
neighborhood to be sure the guests had all left. Then Dad drove
us to our apartment a block away. Edgar went up to our apartment
to be sure there was no one there.
The next morning we had breakfast at home and then drove to
st. Paul. When we got there in the evening, there was no one at
home. They were all up at the farm. So we went to bed. During
the night they all came home. We spent a day or two there and
then drove to Clintonville, Wisconsin.
Friends of Dad's and Mother's had a cottage on Pine Lake and
invited us to spend a few days in it. All the cottages were
empty as the owners had left for the summer.
Ralph decided to drive our car down to the lake and wash it.
Well, that was a dumb thing to do. The wheels just spun in the
sand. We had to look for boards to put under the wheels. That
was a job!
We spent a few days there, then drove home to our apartment
in Hinsdale. I had to be back to teach at Miss Hare's. School
started September 15, as I recall.
LATER YEARS
Sometimes we would take the Burlington train to Chicago to
attend the symphony program in Orchestra Hall. We would climb
many stairs to "nigger heaven," the top sitting area. Dr. Stark
was the conductor. We paid 50 cents to attend.
One time when Dad and I were first married we went to
Orchestra Hall to hear Sousa conduct the orchestra. The
president of the US (I forget which one) was there that night.
He came out on the platform and greeted everyone. In those days
they weren't afraid of being killed so you didn't see any
bodyguards.
After I had been married two years, I had a miscarriage.
Two years later Ruth was born.
When we lived in Downer's Grove, Dave was born. On January
22, Loie's second birthday, Grandmother, Aunt "E" and Aunt Helen
all came to celebrate. Grandmother said in Swedish, "One
celebration leads to something special." Well, it did. Dave was
born 3 days later. It was below zero when Dad and I hurried to
get to the Sanitarium in Hinsdale where Ruth and Loie were born.
Dad had called Dr. Gardiner and Grandmother. Dr. Gardiner met us
at S:OOam and hurried to get me to the delivery room. Dave was
in a hurry to be born. When Dave was born, Dr. Gardiner said,
"I'd say he was a good 9 pounds." Dad asked him, "Did you say,
1 he 111? Dr. Gardiner smiled and nodded his head.
When Dave was 6 weeks old all three of the children had
whooping cough. They didn't cough or vomit during the day. But
during the night when I heard one of the girls coughing and
vomiting, I would run to their room, pull out the messy sheets
and take off their soiled pajamas. When Dave coughed, his body
would get stiff and I was scared. A woman in the neighborhood
called and told me to hold tight to his feet and knock his body
a gainst my shoulder and the flem woul d pop out. Then his body
would get limp. I never found out who that woman was but I think
she saved Dave's life. He weighed 9 pounds, 9 ounces. I
remember I drank 3 quarts of milk a day. He was so hungry. Dr.
Gardiner said, "I don't care what you do, but nurse that baby or
you won't have a son." Dr. Gardiner drove all the way from
LaGrange to Downer's Grove to check up on him. So I said, "We
will get a big bill . " But he said, "Mrs. Smith just had twins
and I am going there too. I will divide the bill between both of
you . "
When Grandmother Holmsten died, Granddad worked in a second
hand store. It was there he bought our three old metal lamps. I
think he paid one dollar for each. Dad made them into electric
lamps for me.
When I went to the dentist in Wheaton, I took all three of
the children with me. The dentist gave each of them a book.
They sat in a corner while the dentist fixed my teeth. He never
complained about the children. Instead he said they were all so
well behaved.
One day in Holmes School the nurse called me and said one of
the boys had punched Lois in the face and broken her gla sses.
The nurse took her to our doctor. So I drove down t own to g e t
her. The doctor had picked bits of glass from her face. He
examined her eyes to see if there was any glass in them. He
didn't find any. I wonder if Lois had been teasing the boy who
hit her.
On Sunday evenings we often listened on the radio to Billy
Graham preach from a little church in Western Springs. I think
this was Billy Graham's first congregation.
When we lived in Wheaton at Christmas time the Swedes would
all go to Dr . Edman•s for Julotta service. Dr. Edman preached in
Swedish and we sang the old Swedish hymns.
Remember when Dave saw the woman picking our berries? She
had filled several pans with berries.
He went in the house to get his toy gun. He ran out to the
berry patch and had the toy gun in his hand. He told the woman
those were our berries. Then she came down to our back door and
told me my son had pointed a gun at her. She was so frightened,
she was shaking. She didn't tell me she had picked our berries.
We didn't know that she was stealing our berries.
Ruth and Lois used to pick berries · and corn and ride over to
Glen Ellyn and sell them. They rode their bikes. One woman
wanted all their berries. They had a large kettle full.
Dave built a tree house in the back yard near the sheep
shed. He wouldn't let the girls in the tree house, but he would
put the cat and Pixie in it.
Dad put the jungle hammock up between two of the apple
trees. Dave slept in it all summer. It had a zipper along one
side to keep out the bugs and a cover over it so he wouldn't get
wet when it rained.
When Mother died we lived in Wheaton.
One evening someone in the family called me and said,
"Mother is dying." I hurried to go but didn't want to drive
alone. I think it was Ruth who came with me.
When I arrived home they said, "Mother is gone." I ran
upstairs to their bedroom and Mother was lying on the bed with
weights on her eyes. It was such a shock.
When the funeral director put her in the coffin they placed
the coffin in the same room where all Mother's plants were in the
windows.
Mrs. Ellen Cedarleaf, a very close friend of Mother and
Dad's, sang the song at Mother's funeral. She cried so hard she
could hardly sing at the cemetery.
I remember the weekend Ruth drove home from Minnesota. When
she was ready to go back the roads were very slippery. Dad
didn't want her to drive alone so Dave and Sally went with her.
Dad, Lois, Karl and I decided to go to Fox Lake to see Aunt
Emma . They were having ice boat races on the frozen lake. Dad,
Lois and Karl went ice skating . I stayed in the house to visit
with Aunt Emma and Newton. Suddenly Newton got up and said he
heard t he bell ringing on the lake. There must be trouble so he
went out to see what happened. In a few minutes he came back and
said there had been an accident. I said, "Was it Ralph?" And he
said, "Yes." Karl and Lois had come in but Dad had stayed to
skate longer. A fellow in an ice boat had come close to the
shore where Dad was skating. The rudder of his boat hit Dad and
cut his leg above the ankle. Newton told me to get my coat and
hat. He said, "We can follow the ambulance to the hospital." It
was several miles away. We drove fast to keep up with the
ambulance. When we got there, I went to find where they had put
Dad. I found him in the operating room. When he saw me he said,
"Look for my billfold." so he was conscious and able to talk.
He was in the operating room 2 1/2 hours. They had called
in a bone surgeon who had just come home from his vacation.
The doctor worked hard to sew up the cut in his head and
sew his leg to his ankle. The bone was cut. When they brought
Ralph to the room where I was waiting the doctor came along and
told me he had done everything he could for Ralph.
They couldn't find a nurse to stay with him. One of the
nuns told me I couldn't stay any longer. I looked down the long
hall and saw several men with white coats on. So I hurried to
them and said I didn't have a nurse. But they said I should stay
with Ralph. They brought me a blanket and a chair and told me to
watch him. If the blood being injected through a tu~e in his arm
stopped, I should go for help . So each time it stopped, I ran
for help.
I stayed all night with him. They gave Loie a blanket and
told her she could lay on the davenport in the reception room.
We both stayed the next day until we found a nurse to take
care of Dad. I drove back and forth each day to the hospital
until Dad was out of danger. After about a week they brought him
home in the ambulance. They had notified the police they needed
their help to carry Dad into the house.
Sally and Dave had come home on the train and had to change
trains in Aurora. Uncle Will met the train and told them what
had happened and brought them home to Wheaton.
When Ralph was in the hospital Herb, Will and Vic came to
see him. So did Pastor Ken Churchhill.
While living in St. Paul, Ruth decided to teach in
California. One day she called me and asked if I ever thought
any of our children would be a missionary. I told her if that
was what God wanted her to do, I couln't say anything. She told
me she wanted to go to Manila as a missionary under The
Navigators.
Two years before Ralph died, Dave and Bonnie came home to
Minnetonka for Thanksgiving. Dave noticed that Dad was getting
weaker. So he advised us to sell the Minnetonka house and move·
to Topeka so we could be near them.
Dad lived just two years after we moved to Topeka.
It was January 28, 1983 that God took Dad home . He had gone
for a walk after breakfast. We had prayed together before Dad
went for a walk. I asked him if he had his rubbers on his shoes.
He smiled and said, "Yes, Mother . " After I asked if he had his
warm coat on, he said, "Yes, Mother," smiling at me. Then I
asked if he was wearing his warm cap. Then, "Yes, Mother." He
gave me a tight hug and kiss and left. I watched for him to come
up the street but I didn't see him. He would always be back in
an hour.
Then the phone rang and a woman's voice asked me if I was
related to Ralph Holmsten. I said, "Yes." She said he was in
the hospital and was not breathing on his own. They wanted to
know who my doctor was. I said, "My son is a doctor." So she
said, "Get dressed. Your son will be there in a few minutes to
get you. " He did come in a few minutes . I asked him if it was
serious and he said, "It could be. " When we arrived at the
hospital we were put in a p r ivate room. I had called Bonnie and
she came in a few minutes. The nurse told Dave to walk down the
hall. So he did. When he came back he was crying like a little
boy . I knew the answer. I just prayed out loud, "Thank you,
God, for taking him so quickly."
Dad had always been so active with his Gideon work and
gardening. It would have been very hard for him to be
handicapped in any way . God gave me peace about it all. I knew
it was part of God ' s plan. It was very hard to adjust to being
alone.
The children all came home for the funeral. Ruth had
already moved home from Manila and was working for The Navigators
in Colorado Springs. She was going to be living alone. However
she didn't want to live alone . I didn't either . so we decided
that we should live together.
I was alone for three months packing all our belongings. I
sold the house in three days . Dave rented a trailer and packed
all our belongings in it. Then Dave and Bonnie drove me to
Colorado Springs.

Date digitized

1/19/2016

Rights

All rights held by the Evangelical Covenant Church. Digital reproductions may be copied and used freely for the purposes of private study, scholarship or research without written permission. For more information, please email the Covenant Archives and Historical Library at archives@northpark.edu.